Along with the fact that Nikki DeLoach is the star of popular Hallmark stories, like the new “Curious Caterer Mysteries” movie with Andrew Walker, she’s also a mom of two children, Hudson and Bennett.
While expecting her younger son, Nikki “was devastated to learn” that the baby “had multiple heart defects and might not survive,” according to People. When the actress and her husband Ryan Goodell welcomed their younger son in 2017, “he was born with four severe congenital heart defects,” per Parents.
Although Nikki’s responsibilities both professionally and personally both at the time and in the years since have required a careful balancing act — “This is the only way through… Multitasking, as we do” — she opened up about both taking care of both herself and her kids while dealing with a “medical crisis.”
‘I Had To Go Get Help’
When Bennett when into his first surgery as a baby, he had an 11% chance of survival, Parents notes while adding that “[w]hat followed was a blur of pediatric ICUs, chest tubes, and sleepless nights.” Although the little one came through it all, “medical trauma doesn’t evaporate once a child is discharged; it burrows deep into a parent’s nervous system.”
Realizing that it was an issue that needed to be dealt with, Nikki told Parents in a new interview, “You live with that constantly. I will never not have a layer of two eyes like an eagle on him: Is he breathing OK? Why did he just grab his heart? Why is he leaning over? He’s out of breath. His skin doesn’t look the same. You will never not have that layer.”
However, she then noticed that her fears were affecting how she was parenting her son.
“I found myself in the bathroom putting his PJs on him when he was very capable of putting on his own PJs,” she said. “And it just washed over me: What am I doing? This child was born with so much strength and so much fire and fight inside of him, and I am literally removing it from him by doing everything for him, hovering over him, not even letting him put his pajamas on. I had to go get help so that I could let my child be a kid.”
Nikki Makes Sure to Be There for Both of Her Boys
“My worst fear was losing Bennett. And my second worst fear was somehow missing something with my oldest son,” Nikki said while speaking with Parents.
That’s why she decided to make sure that Hudson was getting the support that he required while the family was dealing with Bennett’s medical needs.
Asking for help from those around them, such as friends and Hudson’s preschool teachers, Nikki says it was still difficult for her older son to handle what was going on around him.
“Mommy was at a hospital for a month,” she recalled. “Mommy was coming home after school to see him, shower, and go back to the hospital. Mommy and Daddy were not in the same room together for an entire month because one of us was always at the hospital. And he can tell you—he felt definitely abandoned, because either he got Mom or he got Dad, but he never got both of us. There was no way around that.”
“We have done so much work around it,” she explained. “Years of work around building up Hudson’s confidence, lifting him up, and making him feel like he is also a miracle. And also educating him on what did happen with Bennett, and why it was so intense, and why Mom and Dad couldn’t be in the same room.”
Nikki also offered understanding, sympathy and encouraging words for parents who might be going through the same sort of situation, saying, “You do the best you can. And the good news is, you can always repair. That’s in any relationship. You always have the option for repair.”
Hallmark Star Nikki DeLoach Opens Up About Taking Care of Herself & Her Kids During a ‘Medical Crisis’